Forensic Psychology students at Abertay University are assisting Norfolk Constabulary and Police Scotland with an ongoing investigation into a gruesome murder.
Operation Monton dates back more than four decades and relates to the headless body of a woman found in Norfolk in 1974.
When it was discovered, her body was found wrapped in a National Cash Registers’ plastic sheet, was clothed in a pink Marks and Spencer’s nightdress and was badly decomposed.
Despite DNA samples being taken from her body after it was exhumed in 2008, her identity remains a mystery and the police are following up every lead in an attempt to find out who she was which is what has brought them to Dundee.
The victim’s hands were bound with an unusual piece of string and Dundee was recently identified as the only place in the world where this type of rope was manufactured.
Unfortunately, the firm that made the rope went out of business many years ago, and detailed police records do not date back as far as 1974.
However, Police Scotland believe that a clue to the woman’s identity may lie within the pages of local newspaper reports of the time.
Abertay students will now be carrying out a review of newsprint media coverage from Dundee between January 1973 and January 1975 in the city’s Central Library.
Their task is to identify any women reported missing at that time, as well as any other murders that may have a connection with the case.
The student support to this long-term investigation is seen as an integral part of the police’s ongoing inquiries.